


Love and War

by TheHomestuckWhovian



Series: Bottles [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-21 12:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9549203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHomestuckWhovian/pseuds/TheHomestuckWhovian
Summary: Shiro vows to find his way back to his brother, though someone complicates things.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for being patient guys!
> 
> The situation was my grandmother was in the hospital. At first we were initially told she was basically going to die...then twenty minutes later we were told no, they just had to get her ready for chemo. She has months _at least_.
> 
> My grandmother has had numerous medical issues, including four different types of cancer, neuropathy, her eye exploding, etc. She is still kicking though! Still, be prepared in the future where I won't be able to update because something happened. I'll let you know if I'm unable to write.
> 
> Alright, time for the story!

Shiro was thrown into the barracks, the doors slammed shut behind him. He stood and attempted to open the doors, but to no avail.

He was trapped.

"Dammit!"

He had to get back to his brother. He had to make sure Keith was okay. He was pretty sure he was 90% of Keith's impulse control and he didn't want to know what his brother was going to do without him there.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Shiro, realizing others were in there, turned to look at the one who had talked to him.

The boy was much smaller, with big, caramel-brown eyes and fluffy hair. He seemed concerned for Shiro, though he looked like the kind of person who wouldn't survive very long on the front lines.

Shiro just leaned against the door, sliding down it to the cold hard floor, and buried his face in his hands.

What the fuck was he going to do?

* * *

It was the boy who ended up telling him what was going on. The Galran soldiers had informed them they would be shipped to the front lines against Altea. If you proved yourself a liability, you would be shot automatically.

The other prisoners were either veterans of different battles or new recruits in the loosest sense of the word. Shiro could identify veterans by the look on their faces. They were tired and distant, as if they had already accepted their deaths. The new ones, seventeen year olds were noticeably scared and desperate to escape somehow.

One didn't fit that formula, but Shiro was too focused on his prospective escape to think much on him.

* * *

They were loaded onto a train a few days after Shiro arrived, taking them to the battlefield in Altea.

The boy talked, telling fairy tales to the others. Shiro didn't recognize them, definitely indicating that he wasn't from Pyros. Where was he from then?

His eyes met Shiro's and he smiled. Shiro blinked and looked away. Geez his eyes were huge.

* * *

They were all given guns and informed that they would shoot when ordered to or be shot themselves.

Shiro had only the barest idea of how to shoot a gun. His mother had had a shotgun that she taught him to shoot only a little before she died. It disappeared a couple of years later.

The boy seemed to know how to use a gun, though he visibly cringed at the words. He set it aside and looked at Shiro.

"You look a little old to be here," he noted simply, sticking out his hand. "I'm Matt Holt."

Shiro looked at it before taking it and giving it a shake, answering, "Takashi Shirogane."

"Nice to meet you." He looked around before asking, "So, how are you here?"

"They took me late," Shiro explained. "You?"

"My dad and I were attempting to seek passage to Pyros from Terra. The Terran government ratted us out to Galra. Dad was sent to a work camp and I was sent here. Apparently Terra is Galra's bitch."

Shiro nodded. Galran soldiers had revealed that to hopeful Pyros citizens years ago, who had thought Terra would come to help them. His mother didn't tell Keith, but Shiro knew Keith figured it out.

"So, why were you trying to get into Pyros anyway?"

Matt pulled a folded up piece of paper from his pocket, explaining, "I got a detailed account of what was going on about a year ago. My dad and I decided to go investigate under the guise of researching wildlife in Pyros."

He passed the paper to Shiro, who hesitantly unfolded it.

He was greeted with Keith's handwriting.

"This is my brother's," he immediately said, surprising Matt. "He released bottles into the sea every year, asking for help. We...never realized anyone found them."

"We only found the one," Matt explained. "But we tried to help you guys. It...just didn't go as planned."

"You tried though. I appreciate that."

Matt smiled. "So, Shiro, huh?"

"Yeah. Everyone calls me that."

"It means white, right?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah."

"Cool."

* * *

The first battle was hectic.

Shiro was exhausted, but sleep evaded him that night. The sight of others, his brother's age, getting killed unable to leave him.

He left the tent to find Matt creeping off, a shovel in his hand.

"Matt?"

The boy flinched, looking at Shiro before looking at the ground and saying, "I can just leave them there."

Shiro didn't hesitate. He nodded and gestured for Matt to lead the way.

Five of their group had died, all new recruits from Pyros. Shiro explained traditional funeral customs from Pyros to Matt as he prepared them as best as he could.

They were buried with a single flower each.

Neither of them able to sleep, they sat together outside the tent, telling happy stories until Shiro finally drifted off.

* * *

A sword got Shiro in the face. It was a glancing wound, not enough to do too much damage, but there was a slice across the bridge of his nose, under his eyes.

Matt patched him up, noting, "You better be careful. I'd hate to only have teenagers for company."

"I'll try."

* * *

Shiro fucking sucked at avoiding injury. While he was lucky there was nothing major, the concerned looks from Matt made him feel pretty bad. He didn't like worrying his friend.

The main issue was that Shiro couldn't stand to let others get hurt if he could prevent it.

This meant getting hurt saving Matt's ass quite a few times. Matt would get mad at him and scold him, promising he could take care if himself, but Shiro didn't regret keeping Matt safe, even if it hurt at the moment.

* * *

"Shiro!"

The pain was hard to think through. He was pretty sure he was only conscious through pure willpower.

"Shiro, look at me!"

His face was grabbed and turned towards Matt's face. His caramel eyes were tearing up.

"Th-They're gonna shoot me," he mumbled.

Matt blinked, before his face settled into steely determination.

"No. They won't."

Shiro didn't have the energy to argue. He knew that, even if he survived his injuries, he was a liability now. It wouldn't be long until they found him and shot him.

They didn't have any use for a one armed soldier, he thought to himself before slipping into unconsciousness.

* * *

Shiro blinked awake, surprised to see the top of a tent instead of...well...wherever you were supposed to go to when you died.

One of the flaps of the tent moved, and Matt entered, immediately noticing Shiro was awake.

"Morning," he said cheerfully. "You got knocked out in the last battle. I was worried."

Shiro groaned, rubbing his face. Then he registered something that had escaped his notice.

His right arm, which quite brutally remembered being removed, was there, as if it was never removed in the first place.

He went to his shoulder, running his hand against a certain place. That confirmed it.

"You okay, Shiro?"

"Matt?" Shiro looked up at him, making eye contact. "What did you do?"

"Wh-What? Nothing!" Yeah, Matt Holt was a terrible liar.

Shiro pushed his sleeve, allowing Matt to see Shiro's proof.

"A chef when I was working for a nobleman threw hot water at me for breaking a plate," Shiro explained. He gestured to his arm, and the perfect line where the scar stopped. "Even if my memory wasn't reliable, I know my scars."

Matt's face fell.

"Alright. I'll tell you. But not right now. Tonight, okay?"

Shiro nodded.

* * *

He met Matt at an ironwood tree, the boy looking at his feet.

"I couldn't let them kill you," he began, nervous. "But you were missing an arm. They wouldn't spare you for my or your sake. Then I realized what I could do."

He placed a hand on the tree beside them. Suddenly, orange light glowed on the area around his hand.

"In my kingdom, magic is pretty common," he explained, extracting something from the tree. "My dad doesn't possess any of his own, but my sister Katie and I inherited it from our mom." The wood he had pulled away bent in Matt's hands, making a perfect circle and sealing along the seam. Orange glowing patterns formed across the band.

Shiro just watched the sight in shocked silence.

"Katie and I both have power with plants," he explained. "Making a bracelet is a simple trick our mom taught us first. Once she taught us all she knew, we began experimenting with runes and stuff. I had to use a combination to create your arm."

Matt took Shiro's right arm and showed him what looked like a tattoo in the crook of his elbow.

"Disguise," he explained, before covering it with his hand. Suddenly Shiro's arm lit up in orange light, covered with runes. No longer pale like his skin, it was dark gold and black like the ironwood. 

Matt showed him the rune on the top of his arm, saying, "This one I wasn't sure would work. My mom used it to connect Dad to his garden. But it connects you to your arm, allowing you to manipulate it and feel from it like a proper arm. There is a growth rune, just in case, but you probably aren't growing anymore. I added some runes for protection, strength, and luck too."

Shiro looked at his arm and the pulsing orange light emitted from it.

"If I die, the light will go out, but the arm will still work," Matt promised. "It was a risk to make this. If Galra finds out about my powers, who knows what they'll do to me. But, it was worth it."

"Why?"

"Because it saved your life. You risk your life every time for me or the others. It was my turn to return the favor."

Shiro wanted to say it wasn't his job to, but before he could speak Matt shushed him.

"You have to get back to your brother," Matt reminded him. "Just like I have to get back to my family. We both have to stay alive for them, okay? So don't let yourself get killed, and I won't either. Deal?"

Shiro nodded. "Deal."

* * *

It wasn't rational, what was happening to Shiro.

It was happening in the worst place, at the worst time. Any day they could die, either in battles they didn't want to fight or as a result of being considered a liability.

Even if they escaped, they had responsibilities in very different parts of the world. It was entirely possible that they would never see each other again after they escaped.

But Matt's smile made his heart beat faster and he realized he was already too far gone to think about rationality at this point.

* * *

Shiro's scars had tripled since he had arrived.

Over a scar on his head, his hair began to grow white. Matt didn't tease him about it. Shiro had been near death so frequently that there was no humor that could be derived from it.

Matt had his fair share of scars too. Wounds Shiro couldn't save him from. He refused to let Shiro blame himself for those.

* * *

The last battle against Altea was the worst. Shiro lost sight of Matt early on and spent most of it looking for him.

He spotted him, his leg injured, and ran for him. He didn't realise he was being shot at until too late.

"Shiro!"

* * *

He woke up to rocking. The swaying made him nauseous.

"Bucket is next to you," a voice told him, and he wasted no time using it.

"Who are you?" he asked the man seated next to the door, sharpening a knife. "Where are we? Where is Matt?"

The man sheathed his knife, answering, "My name is Ulaz. I was asked by a friend of mine to retrieve you from the battlefield."

"Who?"

"She did not wish for me to disclose that information."

Ah. Keith's mother.

"We are currently at sea," Ulaz continued. "I am taking you to a location where you will hopefully be reunited with Keith."

"Pyros?"

"No. Keith left Pyros less than two days after you were taken. My friend realized the mistake she made in allowing you to be taken, and is attempting to deliver you to Princess Allura of Altea, who plans to lead her own rebellion against Galra."

"Where is Matt? Is he here?"

Ulaz's face didn't change expression, but he looked to the floor.

"I could only take one. Your friend insisted it be you. You both were injured, but yours were far worse. He recognized you'd be killed."

Shiro's eyes widened and he looked at his arm, pressing his fingers over the disguise rune.

The orange light reassured him. Matt would survive. He always did. Shiro would find him again some day.

If Ulaz was surprised by his arm, he didn't show it. Instead, he stood, saying, "We have five more days until we reach Arus. Get some rest. I can not go with you to meet Princess Allura, so prepare what you'll say."

Shiro nodded, letting the Galran man leave.

He reached into his pockets to see if he had anything, and found a familiar piece of paper.

On one side was Keith's handwriting; on the other side, Matt had written, "Remember why you can't give up."

"I'll find you Matt," he promised, smiling at the handwriting.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm Shatt trash. To be fair, I'm also Shallura trash. Basically, I'm trash.
> 
> The decision to give Matt plant powers came from a decision I made while writing the previous story to give Pidge plant powers. If Pidge gets plant powers, Matt getting plant powers not only makes sense, but helps with the prosthetic arm situation I was getting concerned about, since Shiro is being forced to fight as a soldier for Galra instead of fighting for entertainment and becoming an experiment, meaning they were probably going to consider him a liability and just kill him rather than give him an arm.
> 
> Not my best story. Sorry.
> 
> Thanks again for being patient!


End file.
